I am seeing people raising home prices dramatically in anticipation of a buyers push to take advantage of the home buyers tax credit! Some cases $10,000! A quick note: If your home did not sell before, it is not going to sell for sure now! If you or you know someone who is trying to buy a home? Call me! Ricky Haynes 423-635-7304 , Chattanooga Homes For Sale, www. LivingChattanooga.com

April 30th is the deadline to have a signed contract to receive $8000 homebuyer tax credit. If you or you know of someone that is searching for a home, please call me. I can help, Mr. Agressive will work for you! Ricky Haynes 423-635-7304

www.LivingChattanooga.com
Best house search engine on the net.

Get Advanced Notice On The Best Foreclosures in Chattanooga! I'm not called Mr. Aggressive For Nothing!

www.youtube.com/rickyhaynes1
Real Estate trends, foreclosure, home selling and buying for Chattanooga, TN

http://ping.fm/2Me4g
Chattanooga Real Estate on UstreamTv, chat live with questions about buying, selling or current market.

www.youtube.com/rickyhaynes1

Ustream TV live show about chattanooga real estate! live now http://ping.fm/YvWbl

looking for a house this week-end , call I can help

Check out my upcoming live Ustream TV show. Chattanooga Real Estate Show. http://ping.fm/2OuMq

Im looking for a house not on the market! Know anyone wanting to sell? Ricky

http://ping.fm/gTdZG

Just listed: 8601 Boulder View Drive, Soddy Daisy, TN 37379 for $195,000 http://ping.fm/DFJOo

Just listed: 623 Ashbrook Drive, Hixson, TN 37343 for $174,900 http://ping.fm/PhqxY

Just listed: 9643 Shooting Star Circle, Soddy Daisy, TN 37379 for $224,900 http://ping.fm/lGSuY

Obama Loan Modification Program

This Thursday the Obama Loan Modification Plan, HAMP, will be a year old. It was on the 4th of March, 2009 that the Obama administration started the largest and most ambitious homeowner’s aid package since the 1930s. The goal was to stop the wave of foreclosures that was destroying the housing market. The Government’s reply was huge. The aim was to help four million homeowners avoid foreclosure and they were willing to spend $75 billion to do so. How are things looking as we approach HAMP’s first birthday. By December 2009 there were nearly 760,000 loans in the trial stage of the program. This three month trial stage is designed to test if the homeowner will pay his modified loan for three months before the modification is final. However, only 31,000 homeowners had actually received a permanent loan modification by the end of 2009. Of these many had seen only the slightest of changes to their monthly payments. The Obama administration realized they needed to do more, and quickly. This triggered a list of amendments and countermeasures designed to speed up the process and open the doors to more homeowners. Soon it became obvious that the issue was not the interest rates of bad loans that were hurting homeowners but the increasing rates of unemployment that was reducing the income of homeowners that could not afford to pay for their mortgage. In fact, the fastest growing demographic in the foreclosure market consisted of homeowners with prime loans that had lost their jobs. From the beginning of the program, the Treasury Department made it very clear that the program would not cater for families that no longer had an income because of losing their job. The aid was focused on families whose income had shrunk but could still afford the payments of a modified loan. Another issue was the complexity of the loan modification process. Homeowners complained that mortgage servicers were not consistent, lost important documents regularly and did not provide accurate information. Mortgage servicers on the other hand explained that homeowners often did not provide the right documentation and were less than honest when filling forms. Treasury reacted by simplifying the system and providing greater concessions to lenders and mortgage servicers. Industry leaders often made the valid point that the HAMP plan incentives did not cover the costs and it was better for them to continue charging fees from delinquent homeowners and foreclosure proceedings than approve loan modifications. The reaction was to increase the incentives and the arm twisting of lenders that would not comply with the program’s expectations. The incentives did become rather generous for both servicers and borrowers. Every loan a servicer modified came with a $1,000 upfront payment, with an extra thousand dollars every year the homeowners was current on payments. This means the Treasury will pay $1,000 every year the borrower is not delinquent, to reduce the loan balance. However the biggest subsidy was offered to reduce the actual monthly payments of mortgages. If the lender could reduce the monthly payments to 38% of the borrower’s income the government would pay for the cost of reducing the payments to 31% of the family’s income. The problem is that these measures have not been sufficient to stem the increase in foreclosures and new guidelines are being worked on to look for a solution. Unfortunately the prospects do not look good for the second year of the Obama Loan Modification Plan.

Why Banks Aren’t Going To Ease Mortgage Underwriting Anytime Soon

“Banks Out of the Woods? Maybe Not” had some sobering news from the FDIC.

$1 of $8 in outstanding 1-family mortgage loans is to a troubled borrower.
40% of 1-family residential construction loans delinquent or uncollectible.
Number of outstanding loans falling, even after adjusting for write offs.
2.9% of loans written off in 2009, highest rate in FDIC history.
Some good news?

Fewer loans are going bad – 30-89 day loan arrears falling
However this good news may be misleading – a regulatory change allows banks to only write down the exposure.

www.LivingChattanooga.com
Ricky Haynes - Remax Properties
Homes for sale Chattanooga, TN

New Home Sales Hit Record Low In January

Last week, the Commerce Department reported that new-home sales fell 11.2 percent in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000 -- the lowest level on record. Analysts had expected a 3.5 percent gain. "This should be an ideal time for people to buy. And yet, they're hesitating," notes Brad Hunter of housing consultant Metrostudy. "You're not going to have a robust housing market until you have more jobs, and you're not going to add jobs fast enough to bring down the unemployment rate until you have a robust housing market."

Incredible Market To Buy A house

This is an incredible opportunity for consumers to shop for a new home while:

* Affordability is good
* Mortgage interest rates are low (but expected to rise)
* Good supply of homes on the market
* The Expanded First-time Homebuyer's Federal Tax Credit is still available. The contract has to be in place by April 30, 2010.

Eventually, home prices and interest rates will climb, inventory will become scarce and the tax credit will be gone.

Rates Move Over 5 Again

Rates Move Over 5 Again

Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaging 5.05 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending February 25, up from the previous week when it averaged 4.93 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.07 percent.

The 15-year FRM last week averaged 4.40 percent with an average 0.7 point, up from the prior week when it averaged 4.33 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.68 percent.

"Interest rates for 30-year fixed mortgages followed long-term bond yields higher and rose above 5 percent this week amid a mixed set of economic data reports" said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.